Gothic Preview

You'll occasionally see the magician's barrier fill the sky.

As more developers embrace the concept of massively multiplayer games, fans of traditional role-playing games are left with fewer alternatives. Hoping to capture a portion of that particular audience, Xicat Interactive and developer Pirhana Bytes have been working on a single-player role-playing game named Gothic, which has all the typical features of the genre, such as item gathering and statistic building. But what sets Gothic apart from being an ordinary role-playing game is its emphasis on the bond of trust that forms between characters, which ultimately determines your character's fate. Betraying the bond can lead to exile from a camp and possibly even death.

Diego is one of the first characters you encounter inside the mining colony.

Gothic begins with a prerendered introduction explaining how the three camps--the old camp, the new camp, and the religious zealots--formed. In a long, drawn-out battle against the massive army of the orcs, the king issues an order that all prisoners--regardless of the crime they commit--should be sent to the ore mines to supply the kingdom with a larger amount of ore for sword manufacturing. To keep the prisoners within the mining area, the king asks magicians of the kingdom to erect a barrier around it, preventing any possibility of escape. Naturally, something goes wrong with the spell, so the barrier expands past its intended target and traps the magicians inside. Shortly thereafter, the prisoners begin a revolt and take control of the mining facility and the precious ore inside, so the king is forced to make deals for the ore. Just before your character--another prisoner--is thrown into the barrier, a magician asks you to take a letter to the magicians inside. You're then promptly thrown into the barrier, where a group of its inhabitants greet you with a fist to the face, knocking you unconscious.

The game begins as a character named Diego revives you and quickly explains that he's a part of the old camp. Conversations between you and other characters proceed through branching dialogue menus, and if you want to get acquainted with the immediate area, Diego can explain different parts of it to you based on the questions you ask. While there are some options that don't really serve any purpose other than to entertain, it's important to ask characters like Diego as many questions as possible because they can provide you with valuable information on other characters and quests that can earn you respect among a particular camp.

Of course, it's just as easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of information thrown at you early on. Thankfully, Gothic incorporates a journal feature that shows the quests that you're currently undertaking and includes general information on how to complete the quest. There are also sections for general information, completed quests, and failed quests, all of which are especially helpful in determining your current status with any one of the three camps and whether or not you need to perform more tasks for a particular camp before proceeding any further.